Canadiana Backpackers Blog

We often get genuine celebrities visiting the hostel. We’ve even had the entire cast and crew of the hit TV comedy “The Royal Canadian Air Farce” filming a skit on our premises.

But mostly, they are aspiring young Thespians who are enrolled in acting/performance schools in the area such as the Famous Second City Comedy School where Mike Myers, John Candy and Catherine O’Hara trained.

We’ve got a repeat visitor staying with us right now and he has returned to Toronto with a coveted Actor’s Equity Card in his hand!

It is almost impossible to even get an audition for a role in a professional stage production without an Actor’s Equity Card. And you can’t get an Equity Card without being cast in a major production.

It is a classic Catch – 22!

Pete Smeader (remember that name!) was an aspiring actor when he first stayed here. He is currently on a break from the hit interactive stage show “Tony and Tina’s Wedding” in Vancouver.

He will be working in the production until it closes May 28 to make way for the Olympics. But it has been the longest running stage production in Vancouver’s history!

It has received rave reviews in around 50 cities that have launched productions of this hit comedy.

It has become the longest running Off-Broadway Production in Theatre history having been first performed in New York City in 1988.

Now that Pete has his coveted Equity Card he will be able to get future auditions for professional theatre productions on both sides of the border.

We wish him continued success!

Myriam (a.k.a. Muffin) is leaving us again.

“Muffin” as we call her (because she’s so sweet) left us to spend a year in Yellowknife, in the Northwest Territories. (She’s forgiven us even though we all said she went to the Yukon.)

To all of us in Southern Ontario they are both freezing cold places north of the 60th parallel. Temperatures of -40 + are quite common in the icy north country.

Well, Muffin has the travel bug pretty badly. Upon her return (to civilization) she went straight to the Big Apple where she spent virtually all of her time seeing Broadway (and off-Broadway) plays.

We were quite excited when she agreed to come back and help us at the hostel until the New Year when she planned to leave for Southeast Asia.

Typically of Muffin, she will be trading -40C(+) temperatures of the Territories for the +40C(+) climate of Thailand!

Muffin is an avid SCUBA diver but we doubt she did much of that in Yellowknife. The water there is freezing cold even in high summer. We hope she can get in a little diving in the warm Malacca Straits or the South China Sea.

Upon her return to Canada, she plans to continue her education (she’s a grad of Queen’s University) and train for a career in Social Work.

Muffin is kind, committed and compassionate. Qualities that will stand her well in her chosen field. And that’s not to mention that she’s very sweet too!

Myriam at the Front Desk. What’s that on the counter? You guessed it – a Muffin!

This entry is about an individual that has been the subject of no fewer than five previous entries. His latest accomplishment is to make us all believe in miracles.

We call him “Tony the Tiger” and he calls himself, simply “Tony the Traveler”. He’s from England and he’s both a Tiger and a Traveler!

He has been here, on at least, five occasions – so many times that we have lost count. And everyone who has met him has been inspired by his adventures.

Tony is blind and about 80% deaf; however, it has not prevented him from confronting (and conquering) enormous challenges.

I won’t go into his travel adventures; but, if you are interested, merely use the “SEARCH” feature of this site and type in “Tony”.

Tony recently had renal failure to add to his list of problems and desperately needed a kidney transplant. Without one, it seemed that Tony’s adventures were coming to an end.

In the United Kingdom (as everywhere) there are a lot of people waiting for such operations. Indeed, a lot more of them than there are donors.

Tony left us for home in the UK to wait for a transplant last summer, taking with him with our best wishes and prayers. We knew that he would need a miracle.

Our prayers were answered as Tony is no longer on the transplant waiting list. It seems that his stepdad had an extra kidney and donated it to his son. It was an heroic and loving act.

Tony had his surgery before Christmas this year. It was a great success. His mother reports that Tony came out of the operation and has been upbeat and talking incessantly ever since.

It sounds like the Tony we know!

New Year’s Eve 2009 will be remembered because it was bitterly cold.

A week ago Toronto was basking in 13C sunshine. New Year’s Eve was a windy -13C!

In spite of the cold Diana, our events co-ordinator escorted hostel residents to the Madison Pub, a bar popular University of Toronto crowd.

The Madison is not located close to the hostel and the Entertainment District. It is in an area called The Annex an elegant and wealthy district where most of the Fraternity and Sorority Houses associated with the University of Toronto are located.

The pub therefore attracts a young, well educated crowd and has quite a bit less “agro” than many downtown clubs.

There was a fourteen dollar cover charge as well as a brief wait outside in the cold for those who arrived late. But from all reports, a good time was had although the popular two-story pub was pretty packed with revelers.